When you say ‘Torture is wrong’, what are you really saying?

THE VENUE: By the river

The weather on Sunday is expected to be hot and sunny, so we'll meet outside by the river on Laundress Green (details below). There is no attendance limit.

Etiquette
Our discussions are friendly and open. We are a discussion group, not a for-and-against debating society. But it helps if we try to stay on topic. And we should not talk over others, interrupt them, or try to dominate the conversation.

WhatsApp groups
We have two WhatsApp groups. One is to notify events, including extra events such as meeting for a meal or a drink during the week which we don't normally put on the Meetup site. The other is for open discussion of whatever topics occur to people. If you would like to join either or both groups, please send a note of the phone number you would like to use to Richard Baron on: website.audible238@passmail.net. (This is an alias that can be discarded if it attracts spam, hence the odd words.)

THE TOPIC: When you say ‘Torture is wrong’, what are you really saying?

This week's question is taken from the 2024 Cambridge Philosophy Tripos, Part IA examination: Ethics and Political Philosophy. Thanks to Richard for unearthing this rich seam of challenging philosophical questions.

I don't want to give too much direction, but you can safely assume the question is not about torture, or whether it is right or wrong.

How you initially answer the question may place you in a specific pigeon-hole, for example (this list is incomplete):

- emotivists just feel it's wrong: "Boo torture !"
- prescriptivists are stating a command: "Don't do torture !"
- realists and anti-realists disagree about whether moral facts exist at all, and whether they can be true or false: "The claim that 'Torture is wrong' is either true, false or neither."

Does your response fit with how you generally think about moral and immoral acts, and claims about them ? Are you happy with the pigeon-hole that your initial response might assign you to ?

As The Sun newspaper might say: "Phew, wot a scorcher!", so please take care in the sun.

Link to the exam paper: https://www.phil.cam.ac.uk/files/pht0-2_ethics_and_political_philosophy_in_hall_f.pdf
All Part IA past papers: https://www.phil.cam.ac.uk/curr-students/ugrads-exam-folder/IA-past-exam-papers